Integrated Lesson

Edit 31 …
Two Sides to Every Coin?
Unit Driving Questions: When viewing technological advancements do the positives outweigh the negatives? How might this apply to today’s technological advancements?

Overview: Students will explore the implications, both positive and negative, of technological advancements. Specifically, in social studies students will explore advancements in transportation and communication technologies; in science students will examine advancements in energy technologies; and in ELA students will explore the implications of technology through literature.

For a culminating product, students will creatively synthesize their learning in a play exploring the two sides of technological advancements. The products from each content area of study will be housed on a Thinglink Digital Playbill.

Curriculum Objectives or Professional Learning Standards (for non-education or adults)


Social Studies:

ELA Common Core Standards:

Literacy:
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Speech/Listening
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.5: Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.
Reading
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.


Common Core Literacy Standard for Science:

Science:
  • 8.P.2.1 Explain the environmental consequences of the various methods of obtaining, transforming and distributing energy.
  • 8.P.2.2 Explain the implications of the depletion of renewable and nonrenewable energy resources and the importance of conservation.

Theater Arts Standard:
  • 8.C.1.3 Create original works that communicate ideas and feelings.
  • 8.C.2.1 Use acting skills, such as observation, concentration, and characterization, to perform original, written scenes.
  • 8.AE.1.1 Apply the major technical elements to informal and formal presentations.


Learning Activities


Science Lesson:
  1. As a class, students will watch The Industrial Revolution: Impacts on the Environment. This will be a watching/critical viewing activity.
    1. Before viewing the video above, students would be asked the following questions in a whole class format to determine prior knowledge:
      1. Why is pollution bad for the environment?
      2. What causes pollution?
      3. How does pollution affect you personally?
    2. During the video, students will be required to take notes on a Google Doc and will be asked to share the notes that have taken with the teacher to ensure each student was actively listening.
    3. After the video we will have another classroom discussion to find out how the video associates with their prior knowledge. The following questions will be asked:
      1. Why was there a need for the industrial revolution?
      2. According to the video, what were some of the environmental unintended consequences of the Industrial Revolution?
      3. How does increased population growth affect the environment?
      4. Why was coal used instead of wood?
      5. What effect does coal have on the environment?
ELA Lesson:

1. Students will Read Bradbury’s short story There Will Come Soft Rains and the Robo-Legs article to help them answer the questions: When viewing technological advancements are there two sides to consider? How might this apply to today’s technological advancements?

2. Students will split into groups of threes and will record the following information:
  • What is the main idea/what is the author trying to say?
  • Do you agree with the author/speaker? Why/why not? (Be sure you give specific examples here!)
  • What are some of the similarities between the two pieces? What are the differences? Does the fiction or nonfiction piece communicate the idea better?
  • Does this present technology in a positive or negative way? Give at least one example from the text.

3. Students will decide as a group which stance they are going to take in answering the question "Is the influence of technology on society positive, negative, or both?" keeping in mind the findings from both pieces (Bradbury and “Robo-Legs” article).

4. Students will then use StoryKit app to present their position, using both the short story and the article to help prove their position. Students should use the rubric to guide the group and should be sure that every member is actively participating. Students should use the visual/auditory elements of StoryKit to persuade and communicate their position to their audience. Each group will also receive feedback from their peers using the rubric.

Social Studies Lesson:
  1. As a class, students will watch United Learning’s The American Industrial Revolution recording Questions, Connections to Prior Learning, Reactions, and, most importantly, Key Industrial Revolution Technological Advances on a web-diagram graphic organizer. Students will discuss their learning in whole class format.
  2. In small groups, students will explore the Library of Congress primary documents representative of the Industrial Revolution Era. Each group will select a technological advancement for further study using the library of Congress site along with one other (CRAAP vetted;) source.
  3. Small groups will analyze their advancement to determine both its positive and negative implications, capturing their findings on a T-Chart.
  4. Groups members will take a picture capturing a modern image relevant to the historical innovation (i.e., a train to represent steelworks). Using thinglink, groups will use that image to demonstrate their learning.
  5. Students will peer edit other groups' thinglinks using rubric
  6. Students will do a virtual thinglink gallery walk to gather evidence for their individual assessment - a report answering the Unit Driving Question: When viewing technological advancements in our nation’s past, do the positives outweigh the negatives?


Theater Arts Lesson:
  • Accessing prior knowledge/jumpstart thinking: Students will answer “List three ‘rules’ needed when writing a script.”
  • Students will access __http://www.playwriting101.com/__, looking at Ch 1,4,8,10,11,12, & 14. Students will create a set of “Rules” for scriptwriting from the information presented in the website.
  • Students will break into groups and share their rules. Each group will create their own set of rules. Group rules will be posted in an Evernote notebook (managed by one group member but shared so all can access it). These group rules will be used to write an original 10-minute play.
  • Students will use information collected from ELA, Social Studies, and Science to write a script for a 10-minute play that explores both sides (pros and cons) of a modern technological advancements.
  • Scripts will be reviewed by at least two other groups using the final grading rubric, with these groups offering constructive criticism. Groups can decide to edit their scripts based off feedback from their peers.
  • Students will rehearse and perform their 10-minute plays for their peers.





Integration of App/Tool

Science:
Students will break off into small groups and will be told to go to the United States Environmental Protection Agency website to explore the effects Energy has on the environment.
  1. Students will be directed to the follow link:http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/
  2. Each group will be required to write a 4 page paper using a Google Doc and will choose one of the following topics to report on:
    1. Environmental impacts of Natural Gas
    2. Environmental impacts of Coal
    3. Environmental impacts of Nuclear Energy
    4. Environmental impacts of Municipal Solid Waste
    5. Environmental impacts of Hydroelectricity
    6. Environmental impacts of Air Emissions
  3. The Google Drive app will be used to allow individual members of the group to import data they collect and add information to the Google Doc shared by the group on their own time, while allowing that information to be updated in real time so all members of the group can view the information.

Social Studies:

thinglink: Students will create an innovative product demonstrating their learning of social studies content through thinglink. This product will subsequently serve as a learning tool for other groups. Lastly, students will create a thinglink digital playbill for the culminating project housing learning from all content areas.

ELA:

Students will use the StoryKit app to collaborate in small groups in order to create a visual representation of whether technology/technological advancements are a positive or negative influence on society. They will use images, text, voice recording, and painting in the app to give examples or explanations for their position. They will share their "story" though the link assigned to them through the app and present their "story" to the class.


Theater Arts:
  • Evernote: Students will use Evernote to share their group’s Scriptwriting Rules and to collect information from their other classes to reference while writing their scripts. The Evernote notebook will be managed by one person but shared so all group members can access the information. Groups will also use Evernote to keep a checklist of what they need to accomplish while writing the script and preparing for their performance.
  • Google Drive: Groups will write their scripts using a Google Doc shared amongst the group with edit rights. Peer reviews will be accomplished by groups sharing their scripts to at least two other groups with comment rights, the script can be share to one or all members of the peer review groups. Constructive criticism will be left as comments in the script. Final scripts will be shared to the teacher.
  • Thinglink: students will create a thinglink digital playbill for the culminating project housing learning from all content areas.



Student Collaboration

  • Students will collaborate while selecting, researching, and creatively synthesize their findings regarding the pros and cons of technological innovations.
  • Students will collaborate virtually through the thinglink gallery walks
  • Students will visually collaborate in creating the digital playbook.
  • Students will collaborate in small groups creating their StoryKit presentation.
  • Students will collaborate in creating a play script based on research they collected.
  • Students will collaborate through critiquing and sharing ideas during the peer review process.

ISTE NETS-T or other Professional Standards

  1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
    1. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness
    2. Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
    3. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
    4. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments
  2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments: Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the Standards•S.
    1. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
    2. Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
    3. Customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
    4. Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching

Assessment of Learning

  • Social Studies formative assessments: Web- diagram Graphic Organizer; T-Chart
  • Social Studies Formative Assessments: thinglink rubric
  • Students will peer assess other groups' thinglinks using the rubric
  • Individual student report on Unit Driving Question Written Response Rubric
  • ELA formative assessments: StoryKit presentation rubric
  • Students will peer assess other groups' Storykit presentations using the rubric
  • Science Students will be graded on their group paper created on the Google Drive App. The following criteria will be used for grading:
    • Paper includes a minimum of 4 complete pages of content.
    • Paper covers one of the assigned research topics.
    • Paper is well-organized and covers the content on the United States Environmental Protection Agency website.
  • Theater Arts Script Assessment: 10-Minute Play Rubric

Materials/Resources

Value Beyond the Learning Experience

  • Students will develop collaboration skills
  • Students will have improved critical thinking skills related to technology and their world
  • Students will improve communication skills

Learning Experience Development Resources/Citations